My name is Marta Seweryn, I am working in the Marketing industry for more than 10 years and currently managing the European Events Team for an American based company, called National Instruments.
I have just had my first professional coaching sessions with Agnes Vad and would like to share my personal experience from the meetings and how the whole coaching process helped me to accelerate the successful execution of my dream goals in my private and professional life.
My story, My Challenge
Recently, I have found myself in a situation where plenty of private and business decisions were to be made and I spent a lot of time processing pros and cons of each decision, which was stopping me from putting things in motion in a timely effective manner with a proper priority. It was mostly my private life happenings reflecting on everything else in this time frame.
I have chosen to attend meetings with a professional coach as I hoped it will help me to gain efficiency on my operational level and set my prime concern on the importance and criteria to move forward.
I did not feel good about myself being in a situation where I cannot apply my knowledge and experience to set my thoughts on a right path, it was uncomfortable and I felt unsuccessful, it reflected on my work-life balance. So I certainly wanted to develop from this state.
How the Human Potential Assessment Helped Me…
“Being at Full Potential” (beingatfullpotential.com) is the name of the method that Agnes has chosen to use during our sessions. Agnes explained that this model is a framework to
Assess and unlock human potential and aims to measure and consistently enable potential realization.
Before we met for sessions, I have done a test (=Human Potential Assessment) consists of several questions about my behaviors in certain situations.
And I recognized that there is much more to your life that is visible today to others.
I was very curious about my result as my competitive side was expecting I score high. The result came with a graphical outcome with colors in the shape of a house. I did not understand my result fully, but I could see categories that were assessed and how I scored.
My focus went to look at the item that was underscored, and so was for the first 2 sessions, even when Agnes explained the model in detail to me and we started to discuss what the results mean in relation to my life. Agnes helped me to understand that the underscoring in my understanding is only reflecting that there is a development in the area which would help me to be at my full potential. With her guidance I came to discover what it means for me and how
I can drive myself to get where I want to be
This was an incredible realization, as was so aligned to what was troubling me at the very moment. She pointed my attention to see that apart from the “underscored” item there is all the rest that I shall feel good about as I am acting mostly in agreement with my true self. The model itself as well showed me how well I have developed my fundamentals and construction of the house* (see the below image, coloring is only an example!), straight to the roof, which in fact represents my being in life.
House Framework – Human Potential Assessment
Example for the House Framework in the Human Potential Assessment
Every session we were coming back to the report and to the house, step by step I saw how it builds up creating my life and reflects on my current state. Now even that sessions are over I went to see “my house” again to remind myself where I am and relate to my strong fundamentals.
This model is unique. It easily helped Agnes to set the ground for the talk and we were tackling it from multiple dimensions. Agnes showed me that perception of this model is very individual, every other person can see it differently. It is constructed in a way that this is (typically) not a one-time touch. It is unique, because it gives an opportunity to revise it again after a time. It is great to have a person who can guide you through the model, as Agnes did for me, also pointing me in the right direction at times when I was going on my self-discovery journey.
My Challenges and Breakthroughs
There were few challenges and breakthrough moments for me in the whole session cycle. We were talking about myself, so I went through states where I was too confident, not confident at all, scared for a while, but also happy, proud of myself, thankful to Agnes, feeling harmonic and feeling accomplished to what we have agreed as session ultimate goal.
When the challenge comes, I decide how will I go about it.
My biggest challenge was to set a proper goal for myself. For that, I had to first understand, what is that I really want and what will make me happy. Agnes’ support was priceless in this step. She took me back in time in my own life to get an insight from me and say it out loud what is important for me. What makes the difference and what are the criteria I applied for choosing goals in my past which made me feel happy and accomplished.
That was…
My biggest realization, as I understood it is not the first time in life that I struggle with a similar situation…. not the first time I have a challenge….. and certainly not the first time that I may fail and find a way to stand up to still be able to pursue on my goal. The most important to me was to address and understand that it was fear of failure that was stopping me from executing on my own goals and also the pressure of the environment that made me choose goals that do not make me entirely happy.
The moment I realized that I felt like I became a different person like I got my wings back and was ready to fly. I knew I remembered my successful pattern at that moment, which will help me go through such situations for this time and for any time in the future, as it already did in the past with quite a significant track record.
1. The discomfort of the darkroom.
The other challenge was to go through the thoughts and emotions that were blurring my picture and were stopping me from arriving at the ultimate goal. I think it was also not easy for Agnes as she had to steer my emotions, which were very uncomfortable at first.
I felt scared and trapped in a dark room surrounded by my problems.
That association indicates my lack of comfort when it comes to talking about my true emotions. You could feel pretty much the same when someone pushes you out of your comfort zone. With a set of questions, Agnes took me on the journey with my emotions and showed me two sides of being.
And I could decide which way I want to go to!
It was difficult, as I felt I would give up on myself while sharing out. I only achieved the next step when we talked through with Agnes what would be the consequences of sharing my emotions. I decided that they are absolutely something that I can live with and even want to happen. It was a huge relief that I am back to my true self where my emotions can be in front of me. Sometimes the solution is easy, but we often do not see it.
2. The difference between “I think” and “I feel”.
Agnes pointed to me very accurately that at the beginning of our discussions I would always say “I think”. My answer, my reaction was coming from my brain. It is incredible that after having a breakthrough moment I started to use “I feel”.
There is a disconnection between your heart and mind, but in fact, your mind is giving all the answers.
But your feelings are not always in agreement with what your mind would answer. This often becomes an internal conflict and leads to struggle and personal discomfort of not finding the right answer.
I became more mindful of what my reaction to situations is.
As a result,
I am proud of myself to be able to express myself from my heart, which is an agreement with my self-being and helps me develop my goals, at any stage of life.
3. Curiosity – look at the things around you with a fresh eye.
The final challenge for me was to go out of the scheme of behaviors that I know and repeat, and which don’t bring the desired outcome, instead they create a feeling of stagnation with no result.
The first step was to see and understand them. Through the model and recalling my core values Agnes explained to me, how shall I look at such behaviors to find them, and also made me realize that I am strong with my base potential to go about it the way I want.
I could consciously repeat such behaviors or decide to use another way to go about the situation. I certainly was using too little the fresh look, and right after this realization I started to apply it and, believe me, I couldn’t be happier from the outcome.
Your authenticity shines through in environments that are comfortable to you but when challenged you might find yourself falling back on old patterns and behaving in ways that “protect” you rather empower you.
The power of a coach
The best is that Agnes was there to facilitate the session, ask the right questions, and help me to arrive at conclusions, but it was me who set session goal, it was me to take chance to solve it, it was me to share my thoughts and feelings.
It made me feel very strong and gain control of what I want and how will I get it.
This is an incredible feeling to be back at a driving seat.
I believe that is nearly impossible in a similar time frame if you don’t have a wise person and the Being at Full Potential method next to you. A coach will help you with the problem you came with and will do much more in the process, I recommend this experience to anyone.
Final thoughts
Trust your judgment, you will feel when you need a coach.
It is true what they say, if you are ready for a coach, a coach will find you.
There are times in life, when things do not fall together as you plan, either in business or privately. For this times if you want to make sure you are using your full potential to push your life in the right direction, I am sure a coach will help you.
This is what Agnes did with me in our sessions. Don’t be scared, look how much you can gain on a self-discovery.
You think you are utilizing your potential, but you can be so much better at any time, you just need to focus on the right goal at a time.
This discovery process that will trigger deep commitment and lasting engagement. At the end of this phase, the next steps and personal road map will be clearer, as it was for myself.